My new favourite gadget

I popped this inexpensive little gadget into my shopping basket on a whim and it is just the best thing.

The corner trimmer was designed to simplify sewing right angled triangles, such as half square triangles or flying geese blocks. The main reason I wanted to give it a try was because it also makes it easier to cut and sew the bias edges when piecing binding strips (one of my bugbears).

Anyway, to use this little gadget for binding, I cut my strips and then simply lined up a straight edge of the trimmer exactly on the long edge of a binding strip. I first cut the diagonal edge and then the 90 degree triangle. Turning the strip around, I did the same at the other end.

Cutting off the little triangle on the end made such a difference! No more guesswork matching seams. Now they lined up perfectly.

And there were no “dog ears” of fabric to cut off after the seams were pressed open.

When sewing the binding to the quilt, I prefer to use a diagonal seam for the final join. The corner trimmer made this so simple to do. It was small enough to manoeuvre on the binding strip ends and the clear cutting instructions made it easy to get the final length of the strip just right.

I love this corner trimmer and can see that I will be using it often. Binding from now on will be a breeze!